Not only has Apple patented a bag and an all-screen phone in the last 12 months, the tech giant seems to have also patented a concept for a vaporiser.

The patent, filed last year and published January 26, describes a “sublimator/vaporiser” that carries both Apple’s name and that of company engineer and senior manager Tetsuya Ishikawa.

The documents describe a chamber that uses a heated plate to slowly compact the material being vaporised, and focuses on the method of vaporisation being developed with an emphasis on ways of maximising the vaporisation rate so more of the substance will be converted to vapor and less will be lost to cooling. Understood?

But, as it only describes “a substance that is to be vaporised or sublimated into a vapor,” rather than what the substance might actually be, it isn’t clear what is actually intended to be vaporised in the device.

According toiDropNews, the patent in question may even be referring to a vaporiser device used in the fabrication of semiconductors. For example, vaporisers are often key in the etching process — which uses chemicals compounds to remove layers from the surface of a substrate during semiconductor fabrication.

While we have no idea what Apple intends to do with its vaporiser, we’re still very keen to find out.